darkwingduckfandomcom-20200223-history
Launchpad McQuack
Launchpad McQuack is Darkwing Duck's trusted sidekick and pilot. Launchpad was Darkwing's biggest fan and begged Darkwing to be his sidekick several times before Darkwing until eventually he accepted him. He refers to Darkwing as "DW" and Darkwing often calls him "LP". Launchpad is very simple-minded, laid-back, very loyal, modest and hard-working. Launchpad is the designer and builder of the Thunderquack, Darkwing's airplane. Even though Launchpad is a skillful pilot he is known for his crash landings. He is voiced by Terence McGovern who first did the role for DuckTales. Character Background Launchpad grew up as the oldest child in a family of stunt pilots. His parents are Ripcord and Birdie and he has a younger sister named Loopy. As a child, Launchpad was afraid of flying, so his father forced him into the passenger seat of his plane to get him over it. During such a flight, Launchpad fell out and was saved by Tia, an alien princess. They flew together for a while and even crashed together, with Tia learning to have fun thanks to Launchpad. Tia was taken back by her people shortly after and Launchpad was returned to the passenger seat. From that day on, he was no longer afraid of flying. At around 20, Launchpad tried to join his parents' business as the Flying McQuacks, but he couldn't kep up with their level of flying and left in shame. Some months later, he owned his own hangar and had built himself a plane, which he proudly named the Sunchaser. Because of his low charge of ten cents a mile, he drew the attention of Scrooge McDuck, who wanted him and his plane for an expedition. Launchpad made a terrible first impression, but by lowering his rates Scrooge still agreed to hire him. The expedition gave Launchpad his first crash but also plenty of opportunity to prove himself and Scrooge made him his regular pilot while the Sunchaser was donated to the museum. Launchpad would stay with Scrooge for some ten years, piloting the Joyrider and restoring the relation with his family, after which he became the sidekick of Darkwing Duck, building and piloting the Thunderquack. Sometime in these years, he acquired, possibly by building it himself, a small orange helicopter. / Launchpad collects buttons. History Launchpad McQuack first appeared as Scrooge McDuck's pilot in the DuckTales cartoon series. He later appeared in the spin-off series Darkwing Duck as Darkwing's sidekick. He is usually depicted as brave, good-hearted, and incredibly dim-witted. While a skillful pilot, he is very bad at landing and almost always crashes instead but, to his credit, he and his passengers always survive such crashes, and he takes a strange sort of pride in being able to crash any imaginable aircraft ("If it's got wings, I can crash it!" he has proudly proclaimed). He was voiced by Terry McGovern. The character sometimes appears in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom for meet-and-greets, though his appearances have been rarer since the Disney Afternoon cartoon block ended production. In DuckTales, Launchpad acted as Scrooge McDuck's personal pilot. His imposing physical stature meant that he sometimes acted as a bodyguard for Scrooge as well, though his role was later taken over by Gizmoduck. In earlier episodes, he is idolized as a hero by Huey, Dewey, and Louie's friend Doofus. In later episodes he appears less frequently. Often when a DuckTales story adapted an original Carl Barks story, Launchpad would be used as a stand-in for Donald. While Launchpad never argued with Scrooge the way Donald might, he would often end up in Donald's role as physical laborer or man of action. Launchpad was the subject of several episodes devoted to exploring his character in more detail, including one that explains how he came to work for Scrooge McDuck. Launchpad is a slightly different character in Darkwing Duck. He is notably less competent and less of a man of action, perhaps to keep him from upstaging Darkwing. His design is changed somewhat, with a much larger beak, a generic human tongue regularly used on other cartoon characters as opposed to the somewhat semi-realistic Duck tongue used on the Disney Duck characters and a more muscular torso. Launchpad becomes slightly more intelligent, probably to compensate for Darkwing's tendency toward total self-absorption. Launchpad leaves his job working for Scrooge McDuck in the series pilot, Darkly Dawns the Duck. Meeting Darkwing in his hangar, Launchpad claims to be the under appreciated superhero's biggest fan. Launchpad offers to be Darkwing's sidekick several times before the hero eventually accepts him. Launchpad is the designer and builder of the Thunderquack, Darkwing's custom air transport (which, oddly enough, he almost never crashes). In the series, Launchpad is depicted as living with Drake Mallard. There is no explanation of how Drake accounts for Launchpad's presence in his household to his neighbors the Muddlefoots. Launchpad doesn't disguise his identity when he is out with Darkwing Duck fighting crime. He also, like Drake, doesn't appear to have any sort of job beyond his crime fighting duties. Notes * Launchpad received a subtle redesign for his presence in Darkwing Duck, most notably receiving a larger bill that makes him look older than his DuckTales self. However, the design seems to take cues from Launchpad's debut episode "Three Ducks of the Condor", which looks a lot more like his Darkwing Duck self than his usual DuckTales self. * The amount of hair on Launchpad's head varies between stories. The episodes "Battle of the Brainteasers", "Heavy Mental", "The Revenge of the Return of the Brainteasers, Too!", and the comic story "Hero for a Day" all depict him as bald with the exception of the red tuft on the front. The episodes "Can't Bayou Love", "Trading Faces", "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlatan", "Slaves to Fashion", "When Aliens Collide", and "Star Crossed Circuits" depict him with a full head of hair. In the DuckTales episode "Hero for Hire", he also has a full head of hair. Because "Battle of the Brainteasers" and "Heavy Mental" are products by Walt Disney Australia and "The Revenge of the Return of the Brainteasers, Too!" logically was drawn up based on the model sheets obtained from WD Australia, the near-bald version of Launchpad seems to be a peculiarity of the model sheets of said studio. As per "Crisis on Infinite Darkwings, Part 1", he has a full head of hair in the 2010s comics. de:Quack Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Heroes Category:SHUSH Category:Justice Ducks Category:Pilots Category:1991 characters Category:Cartoon characters Category:Book characters Category:Disney Comics comic characters Category:Disney Adventures comic characters Category:Disney Afternoon comic characters Category:Disney Europe comic characters Category:Boom! Studios comic characters Category:Joe Books comic characters Category:Video game characters Category:Import characters Category:Live-action show characters